Ideal Gifts: Co-opoly, the game where everyone wins, or everyone loses

In the Ideal Gifts series, The Next Web team shares personal recommendations for gifts to give this holiday season.

Monopoly is a mainstay of many a family Christmas get together, but aren’t you get sick of getting rinsed for everything you own by your 12-year-old niece and ending up crying into your turkey?

If so, you might want to get your hands on Co-opoly: The Game of Cooperatives, where you all start a business together and still have to make many tough decisions, but in the end, either everybody wins, or everybody loses.

Much like IRL, starting a business as a co-operative is a real test of your ability to work in a team. But it quickly becomes clear that it’s more fun to work together and make more people happy than being the evil overlord in the room.

Co-opoly combines charades, Pictionary and mime – which the festive season is never quite complete without – with a warm message about how we might go about creating that better world we all pine for.

Not just one for all the family, this game also makes the perfect stocking filler for your startup founder pals. Although it might not lead to fully distributed company wealth in the future, it could give them pause for thought while they’re working out of their coffeeshop-cum-office.

Definitely don’t ditch the games this Christmas, but perhaps spend $35 buying an ethically-produced, crowdfunded boardgame that could save the tears over your Christmas dinner.

➤ Co-opoly: The Game of Co-operatives [The Toolbox for Education and Social Action]